Jason, Aidan, and I are taking our first official vacation as a family: we're up here in Greenville, South Carolina, home to some amazing BBQ and beautiful scenery. We came up here in March for Unleash '09, and we liked it so much, we thought it would be a nice idea to come up with our ten month old son and spend a few relaxing days doing a whole lot of nothing.
Did I just use the words "ten month old" and "relaxing" and "doing nothing" in the same sentence? You bet I did. Did we accomplish that? You bet we DIDN'T.
Not that it hasn't been a blast so far. I've eaten far more Spill the Beans ice cream than my fast-disappearing waistline can afford, slept on a luxe king-sized featherbed, watched my fill of Jon & Kate Plus 8 and Real Housewives of New Jersey (hello? overturning tables? WOW.), enjoyed a ton of Southern hospitality, sat atop the highest summit east of the Mississippi River, and went on some amazingly scenic drives. Jason and I are already talking about coming back here sometime during the changing of the leaves some October and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway again. God's creation is truly glorious, and no place proves it more than the mountains.
However, we have found that travel gets, well... complicated when you add an infant-almost-toddler into the mix. Aidan's always been a bit of a homebody, so taking him out of his usual environment has been a bit stressful on him. The first day, I think he was thinking we were on some sort of long day trip, and for the most part, he was all smiles with only a few tears, and lots of long naps in the car. Day two, however, was definitely a TRAVEL: FAIL kind of day, culminating in the most explosive, poopiest diaper I have ever seen. It was all over his clothes, front and back. It was Aidan's nonverbal way of communicating, People, I am not comfortable with this getup, and so I will rule you with my bowels. The benevolent dictator was displeased with his servants.
And since then, it's been a frantic journey of catering to this little man's needs, with varied degrees of success. We found ourselves having a glorious moment at the top of Mount Mitchell, 6000 feet above civilization, only to realize that Aidan's feeding time was upon us and we were totally out of formula and about an hour away from anyplace civilized enough to carry formula for him. Oddly, this was the one moment during vacation that he actually voiced any hunger at all - most of the time, it's been a struggle to get him to take his bottle. And that explosive poo that caught us by surprise on day two? By day four, all we could think about was that he hadn't pooed since the Big Poo. It's always a pleasant vacation when the subject dominating your thoughts revolves around your children's defecation schedule.
And so here we are, spending one last full day in Greenville before heading to Atlanta, sitting in our favorite coffeehouse with a little Grumplepants. It's been hard work, and I never thought I would say this, but you know, it's been worth it. It's hard to explain, but even with all the tears and the fusses and the diaper incidents, I'm so glad I got to experience all of this with my family, all together. There have been plenty of smiles and giggles and fun little nonsense babbles that have made all the difficult moments completely worth it. Traveling down the country's most scenic road with good tunes while your son makes fart sounds with his mouth from the backseat? Priceless.
Still, I think I'm gonna need a vacation from my vacation. That kid is wearing me out.
1 comment:
Well hello there!
Ahhh....travel with the wee ones. We just got back from a little mini-break ourselves. It's an adventure, this parenting. :)
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